Wacky Jack Returns for Hallowe'en

Wacky Jack Returns!

 I took a break from the Lone Stars for a while. I started thinking "Hallowe'en" as I hung up my Wacky Jack wall hanging earlier this month. With Hallowe'en looming,  I decided to make each of our 4 little grandkids a placemat. I liked the Wacky Jack blocks and had fabric strips leftover from that project from last year. I got busy creating 4 new jack-o-lantern blocks.

The Jack-o-lantern blocks are so easy to make; similar to log cabin blocks. I put a bit of stick glue on the first little square of orange fabric and glued it to the centre of the muslin fabric. Then I put another square of fabric on top, face down, and sewed a 1/4 inch seam;  flipped the 2nd square right side up and pressed.  Then I put a fabric strip down the side, (right sides facing) and sewed another 1/4" seam; flipped that strip and pressed. Then you just continue around and around in the same manner increasing your pumpkin as you go around.

Once you reach the pumpkin size you want,  then you need some black fabric strips, In the same manner sew black fabric across the corners to 'round out' your pumpkin (right sides facing, sew a 1/4 inch seam, flip it open and press.)  Then sew black strips to the top, bottom and sides of the pumpkin to finish off the block. I used my 12 1/2 inch acrylic ruler, placed it over top of the block and trimmed the block to a 12 1/2 square.
(Last year's Wacky Jack wall hanging blocks were 20 inches square, as in the top photo.)

Wacky Jack placemats- without faces

Next I cut two  3 1/2" X 121/2"  rectangles of cute green halloween print fabric (that I call "green monsters in flight") to sew on either side of the pumpkin blocks.   After that I cut  1 1/2" strips of black web/ pumpkin fabric to sew on the top and bottom of each block.

Last but not least, I made some black eyes, noses and mouths and appliquéd them on. I machine stitched around them with black thread, using a tight blanket stitch. Also made 4 stems out of green fabric and attached them the same way.

Backing- I used the same green monster fabric for the back of each placemat, sandwiching them with centre batting.

Quilting- I lightly "ditch" quilted along some of the pumpkin strips, then vertically along the side rectangles and lastly sewed along the top and bottom fabric strips.  To finish off the mats, I sewed a narrow 1/8 seam all around the outer edge of each placemat and trimmed off the excess batting and back fabric.

Edging- I sewed 2 1/4" lengths of scrap fabric together (diagonally) to make long strips of binding for the edges.
                      Finished placemat size : 18" X 14".

Our grandkids were thrilled to get their new Hallowe'en placemats!


Wacky Jack Table Runner

Because I still had a lot of leftover orange and yellow scraps I decided it was time to make myself something for Hallowe'en. I created a Hallowe'en table runner.

I have some free pattern directions for a foundation pieced black cat and another one for a witch on a broomstick. I like to foundation piece and I still have a lot of the paper in my stack so I decided to make them. Thankfully I started out with the black cat block! It was tricky enough without any directions.

The pattern was divided up into sections, A, Ba, Bb, C and D with bold dotted lines in between. I figured that meant you had to cut along those lines and make each section separately, then sew the sections back together like a big puzzle piece.  Sounds easy, but it was tricky lining up the separate pieces. The cat tail was narrow and didn't line up at first…  Finally after several tries, I got it to look right.

The witch block was a real terror to make!!! Will not attempt this pattern again, free or not! The witch pattern had even more separate pieces than the black cat. After making each serrate piece, I tried seeing them together, but I had to keep ripping out seams and trying to realign the pieces to try and make it look right. The narrow broomstick went through 3 pieces and lining them up was tricky. The piece where the witch face attaches to the body was a nightmare! I finally had to add some extra fabric to make the pieces wider so that they would line up half decently….  It looks okay now as long as you don't look too closely. :)

I made another Wacky Jack 12 1/2 inch block and decided to use that for the middle block.  I added 2" inch sashing strips to the right sides of the cat and the witch blocks and Wacky Jack block and sewed them all side by side.

 Next I fussy cut  two 6 1/2 X 12 1/2 rectangles from black Hallowe'en fabric and sewed it on the right and left sides of the runner.   Then I sewed 2" black strips to the top and bottom, similar to the sashing.

After taking a photo of it on the dining room table, I decided it needed to be wider.  I took my pumpkin fabric and cut 4 inch strips. To add a bit of interest, I added orange eyeball fabric to the 4 corners. (Four  rectangles- 4" X 7".


Finished runner top is 22 1/2" X 53"

Wacky Jack table runner 22 1/2" X 53"